World Champion D Gukesh’s excellent performance continues in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. He defeated Wijk aan Zee in the fifth round match on Wednesday. Gukesh got double benefit from this victory. During this period, he not only became India’s number one player but also achieved fourth position in the world ranking. Gukesh is playing a tournament for the first time after becoming world champion.
In the fifth round match, Gukesh defeated Vincent Kemar of Germany, who was a part of his team till a few months ago. Gukesh faced China’s Ding Liren in the World Championship held in Singapore. Vincent was also included in the team that Gukesh had prepared for this championship. He helped a lot in making Gukesh a world champion.
Gukesh had tried in the World Championship to prolong the matches against Liren. He wanted Liren to get tired. Vincent also adopted the same experiment against Gukesh on Wednesday. He tried and prolonged the match. He was not in a strong position from the beginning but he dragged the match till the 72nd move. The match between the two lasted for 6 hours.
Gukesh has to face another partner after Vincent. Pantala Harikrishna was also a part of Gukesh’s World Championship team. Gukesh will face him in the seventh round. However, for Gukesh, this is not a difficult situation. He looks at his opponent as a player. He had said before the tournament that facing Vincent and Harikrishna would be special for him.
Gukesh said that, once I get on the board I usually don’t care about the opponent, be it a good friend or someone else. It will be business as usual. Over the past year we have developed a strong bond. I am happy that they are playing in this tournament.